This Day in Baseball History: July 23rd, 1925

A little has changed since then. Manny has a nice chance to break Gehrig’s record, but no other young, active player is particularly close.

On July 23, 1925:

Lou Gehrig hits his first grand slam.

Everyone knows that Lou Gehrig was probably the best first baseman to play the game and that he was one of the game’s premiere hitters. He hit .340/.447/.632 for his career along with 493 home runs and 534 doubles. Of course, his numbers (at least the counting numbers) could have improved had he not had ALS, but that’s water under the bridge now. For most of his career, he lived in the shadow of Babe Ruth, and whatever Gehrig did, Ruth seemingly always did better. But Gehrig beat him in one category (at least — I’m not looking all that up right now).

That category is career grand slams. Babe Ruth hit an impressive 16 during his major-league career, but that’s only good enough for 9th (tied) all-time. On July 23, 1925, Lou Gehrig hit number 1 of a major-league record 23 career grand slams in a game against the Washington Senators.

And I’m guessing we all want some trivia because I do.

– Manny Ramirez is second (and first on the active list) on the list with 21. Eddie Murray is next with 19, and Robin Ventura (who only hit 294 home runs) and Eddie Murray are tied for fourth with 18.

– In 1987, Wade Boggs (in a Ty Cobb-type moment) seemingly decided to hit some grand slams to prove that he could when he belted a record 6 in one season, and of course, those were the only ones he ever hit. Travis Hafner has since tied (2006) this record, but Boggs gets the nod because what he did was just awesome.

– Several players have hit grand slams in consecutive games, but only Babe Ruth did it twice (so he has that over Lou Gehrig, who never did it). Really weird, though? David Eckstein did this once.

– Alexei Ramirez has the most for a rookie with 4 (last season).

– 6 pitchers have 2 career grand slams. Tony Cloninger, with the Atlanta Braves in 1966, did it on the same day, the only pitcher to do so.

Trivia TimeWho is the only player to hit 2 grand slams in a single inning?

Tuesday’s Answer –> In the bottom of the eighth while trailing 1-0, Preston Gomez pinch-hits for Clay Kirby, who has a no-hitter going, with no one on and 2 outs. The reliever gave up 2 runs in the following inning as the Padres lose to the Mets 3-0.

Sorry for the nothing yesterday. I went to see the Harry Potter movie with my dad (Like the others, it was very entertaining and the a/v stuff is awesome, but there’s still little to no depth to the story. Read the books). Afterward, a few friends came over and we had a Jason Bourne marathon. Nothing was accomplished yesterday.